Rubber baron and music fanatic Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) journeys down the darkest byways of the Amazon to build an opera house at the rainforest’s heart. Like his title character, director Werner Herzog reaches an ambitious pinnacle of achievement here – the staggeringly impossible odds that seem to weigh against Fitzcarraldo ever reaching his goal were mirrored by Herzog’s own attempts to complete the film (which were chronicled in Les Blank’s astonishing documentary BURDEN OF DREAMS). Co-starring a ravishing Claudia Cardinale as Fitzcarraldo’s strong, outspoken paramour who believes in him. A must-see!

Klaus Kinski is Aguirre, a power-hungry lunatic who leads a Spanish military expedition down the Amazon in hopes of finding El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. From the opening images of conquistadors snaking their way through the jungle, director Werner Herzog’s epic achieves a rare, operatic delirium. Laced with surreal humor - “Spears are getting longer this year,” notes one skewered soldier - AGUIRRE is the first of the great Kinski -Herzog collaborations (the two reportedly met when their families shared a house together in Munich). With Helena Rojo, Del Negro. “One of the great haunting visions of the cinema” – Roger Ebert. English language version.